There were trucks and people waiting all over the parking lot at Second Harvest Food Bank just before 1 p.m. when someone opened the door and said, "No. 1!"

And so another Free Friday began. Over the next 45 minutes, 11,846 pounds of food was distributed to 16 agencies in four counties. It was kind of amazing.

"Fridays we do this crazy push," says Second Harvest Director Ann McManus. She told me it began four years ago as a way of making sure less perishable food is wasted every week, and it's become very popular with some agencies. They've had as many as 26 there on a busy Free Friday.

The food arrives in different ways. For example, trucks show up sometimes to drop off fresh produce that was rejected at its original destination, perhaps because a problem with the temperature makes it likely to spoil too quickly, and Second Harvest wants it to get out of its warehouse and into homes or soup kitchens quickly. It's put out on Free Friday along with other excess food delivered that week, so it can be distributed by participating organizations that weekend or even later that day. Agencies can take as much as they can physically carry away.

McManus suggested last February that I should come by sometime to see the organized chaos of a Free Friday, and I decided to do it while readers and I are engaged in raising money for Second Harvest through my Christmas Lights Tour.

Checks and pledges already are pouring in. You have until Dec. 19 to get me your checks for at least $25, made out to Second Harvest Food Bank, so you qualify for a possible tour. You also can donate directly at the Second Harvest website, but make sure you put my name on the dedication line so they know to put you on my list. The largest donors automatically qualify for a trip if they want one, and I've already scheduled one of those.

My address is The Morning Call, P.O. Box 1260, Allentown, PA 18105.

McManus offered me the option of just observing what was going on last Friday, but I would have felt like a slug standing around while other people hustled, so I pitched in. I've volunteered for Second Harvest before, and I'm always amazed at how efficiently they get food out to people. This day's organization was no exception.

As the representatives of various nonprofits arrived outside, they were given numbers. The first people showed up around noon, but McManus said they don't start handing numbers out until 12:30. "We've had them there as early as 11," she said.

As their numbers were called, representatives of various nonprofits began with pallets full of bottled water, juice and baby food. They told volunteers how much they wanted, and we heaped it on a cart as they made their choices.

Then that cart was rolled over to an unloading area while we moved to the frozen meat, where each representative was allowed some combination of five boxes of giant Jaindl turkeys or chopped meat.

There was candy, too, but all they had this week was Nerds, which didn't draw many takers. "When there's chocolate," McManus told me, "the candy goes really fast."

Finally, they were confronted with several pallets with crates of crackers and cookies. We helpfully pointed out the choices — "Do you want any Oreos? Vanilla Wafers? Triscuits?" — and loaded them up on another cart.

One guy hesitated about taking too much, worried that he should leave some for the remaining visitors. McManus pointed to the giant shelves surrounding us, full to the ceiling with pallets of food. "We have plenty," she assured him.

We ended up heaping his cart up about as high as it would go.

When they were done shopping, the carts were weighed and the amounts recorded. Later, I stupidly asked McManus if that was so they could be charged the proper amount.

This was the equivalent of asking a clerk for prices in the Dollar Tree.

"It's Free Friday," McManus reminded me.

She explained that although the food is free, Second Harvest has to keep track both to document how much food was distributed and also in case there's some kind of recall, in which case the agencies would have to be contacted. Those are exceedingly rare, though, she said.

Pastor Serge Jean-Pierre of the Eglise Evangelique De La Renaissance, Swiftwater, has been coming to Free Fridays for two years, he told me. He said the food — Second Harvest also delivers up there once a month — is distributed at their church every weekend as well as for emergencies.

Most of the volunteers that day were from Lehigh-Carbon Community College and Keenan House, supplemented by a couple of community volunteers.

I was working alongside Mitch Kurklander, who has been volunteering there for about a year. He said he found out about it from a good friend who's on Second Harvest's board.